The £3 pint: A bitter blow for pub regulars

The average price of a pint of beer has topped £3 for the first time in parts of the South.

Bitter pill: Drinkers in the South are paying more.

Drinkers in the Surrey commuter belt have to pay £3.01, surprisingly more than the £2.90 in London's pubs.

This compares with a UK-wide average pub price of a pint of beer of £2.68, which is up 10p on last year.

The high cost of beer in the pub has been blamed for a rash of closures and a sharp fall in the consumption of beer outside the home, which has slumped to its lowest level since the Great Depression in the 1930s.

Pub beer sales are running at just over 5.4bn pints a year, down by 49% on the 10.67bn in 1979.

In Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Sussex it is £2.85 for a pint, while the cheapest beer is in the West Midlands, Nottinghamshire or Staffordshire where the average is £2.40 a pint.

The figures come from The Good Pub Guide 2010. Joint editor Fiona Stapley said: 'There is more disposable income in the South East and pub companies feel they can get away with it.'